Geopolitics of environment

TELANGANA STATE FOREST ACADEMY DULAPALLY, HYDERABAD

Dr. N. Sai Bhaskar Reddy | Director, The Earth Center, saibhaskarnakka@gmail.com

29th Dec ’17Presentation 1

These slides are provided as a free public service by 17Goals, a multi-stakeholder partnership.Images have been licensed from iStock/Getty or downloaded from Unsplash.com (an open source image bank)

#1: End

poverty in all

its forms

everywhere

#2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved

nutrition

and promote sustainable agriculture

#2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved

nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

#3: Ensure

healthy lives

and promote

well-being for

all at all ages

#4: Ensure

inclusive and

quality

education for all

and promote

lifelong learning

#5: Achieve

gender

equality and

empower

women and

girls

#6: Ensure access to

water and sanitation

for all

#7: Ensure access

to affordable,

reliable,

sustainable and

modern energy for

all

#8: Promote inclusive

and sustainable

economic growth,

employment and

decent work for all

#9: Build resilient

infrastructure,

promote

sustainable

industrialization

and foster

innovation

#10: Reduce

inequality within

and among

countries

#11: Make cities

inclusive, safe,

resilient and

sustainable

#12: Ensure

sustainable

consumption and

production patterns

#13: Take urgent

action to combat

climate change and

its impacts*

#14: Conserve

and sustainably

use the oceans,

seas and

marine

resources

#15: Sustainably manage

forests, combat desertification,

halt and reverse land

degradation,

halt biodiversity loss

#16: Promote just, peaceful

and inclusive

societies

#17: Revitalize

the global

partnership for

sustainable

development

Each goal

is

important

in itself …

Each goal

is

important

in itself …

And they

are all

connected

To find out more, go to

17Goals.org

And read the real documents for

yourself, at

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/

topics

These slides are provided as a free public service by 17Goals, a multi-stakeholder partnership.Images have been licensed from iStock/Getty or from Unsplash.com (an open source image bank)

North-South Commision 1980 (chairman: Willy Brandt):

Report: "North-South: A Program for Survival"

Brundtland Commission

UN commission: "World Commission on Environment and Development"

Report: "Our Common Future"

laid the groundwork for the Earth Summit 1992 in Rio and the adoption of Agenda 21

recommends a massive increase in aid to developing countries

and also proposes improved environmental development

Rio Declaration on Environment and Development

Agenda 21

Convention on Biological Diversity

There are 40 chapters in Agenda 21, divided into four sections.

All together the document has over 900 pages:

Section I: Social and Economic Dimensions

including combating poverty, changing consumption patterns,

population and demographic dynamics, promoting health,

promoting sustainable settlement patterns

and integrating environment and development into decision-making.

Section II: Conservation and Management of Resources for Development

including atmospheric protection, combating deforestation, protecting fragile environments,

conservation of biological diversity, and control of pollution.

Section III: Strengthening the Role of Major Groups

including the roles of children and youth, women, NGOs, local authorities,

business and workers.

Section IV: Means of Implementation

including science, technology transfer, education, international institutions and mechanisms

and financial mechanisms.

Local Agenda 21: Some national and state governments have legislated or advised that local authorities

take steps to implement the plan locally, as recommended in Chapter 28 of the document.

Such programmes are often known as 'Local Agenda 21' or 'LA21'.

Agenda 21

© DS

Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC or FCCC)

aim:

reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases in order to combat global warming.

shortcoming: set no mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions

for individual nations and contained no enforcement provisions

legally non-binding

but:

it contained provisions for updates (called "protocols")

that would set mandatory emission limitsprincipal update: Kyoto Protocol

Principle 1

Human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development.

They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature.

Principle 3

The right to development must be fulfilled so as to equitably meet

developmental and environmental needs of present and future generations

Principle 5

All States and all people shall cooperate in the essential task of eradicating poverty

as an indispensable requirement for sustainable development,

in order to decrease the disparities in standards of living and

better meet the needs of the majority of the people of the world.

Rio Declaration on Environment and Development

...

…

…

…

…

© DS

On June 12, 1992, 154 nations signed the UNFCCC, that committed governments

to a voluntary "non-binding aim" to reduce atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases

with the goal of "preventing dangerous anthropogenic interference with Earth's climate system."

Climate Change Convention

These actions were aimed primarily at industrialized countries, with the intention

of stabilizing their emissions of greenhouse gases at 1990 levels by the year 2000.

Annex I and Annex II Countries, and Developing Countries

Signatories to the UNFCCC are split into three groups:

- Annex I countries (industrialized countries)

- Annex II countries (developed countries which pay for costs of developing countries)

- Developing countries

Annex I countries agree to reduce their emissions (particularly carbon dioxide) to target levels

below their 1990 emissions levels. If they cannot do so, they must buy emission credits

or invest in conservation.

Developing countries have no immediate restrictions under the UNFCCC,

- this avoids restrictions on growth because pollution is strongly linked to industrial growth

because:

- they get money and technologies from the developed countries in Annex II

© DS